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4/25/12

Ride In 4/25: Is April really almost over?

Let's share some non-commute information:

I'm behind in mailing out buttons. I do now have them. I will be mailing them. Hopefully tomorrow. Thank you for your patience. And your purchase. And your love of ankle tattoos of sea horses (I'm assuming).

Kaitlin Luna, from the public relations office of Gallaudet University, emailed me and asked me to share some information with you about a meeting about the Gallaudet Campus Plan community workshop. So, share I will, because that seems like a nice thing to do and I'm a very a nice person. Sure, she sent this to me two days ago and I've posted like 37 times since then and I still haven't responded to her email telling her that I'd be happy to post the information, but I'm still going to go ahead and declare myself nice.
(Sorry!) Anyway, did you know that part of the campus plan includes a new Bikeshare station at 8th and Florida, NE? That seems like a good idea, so if you'd like to attend this meeting to endorse that idea, here's the deets (which I believe in Kirghiz for details):

Have you bought your ticket for BikeFest yet? It's WABA's fundraiser/celebration/fundabration (the last one I made up!) and it'll be your chace to hobnob (?) with DC's bike "elite" (?) and dress up like old-timey people. Like, not first season of Downton Abbey people, but like late second and probably third, though that hasn't aired yet. There will also be jazz. So, if you like that sort of stuff, it'd be a good idea to show up. And it'll be at Eastern Market, so that's a thing, too. Friday, May 11!

I still haven't yet been contacted by the good people at Mr. Orange's office re: my appointment to the DC BAC. I still plan to attend the meeting and I still plan to wear an orange scarf, so there's that.

Let's share some commute information:

A helmet is neither permission for reckless cycling or absolution from dangerous driving. It's just a foam hat.
East Capitol has been milled from 5th to 2nd, so only 3 blocks. Seemed longer last night. Who knows what it'll be like tonight? Other than the people who live there or have driven or walked or ridden past it or maybe even the people who are working on it and their supervisors or loved ones that they've talked to during the day about their jobs. But other than them, who knows?

Lines of cyclists on Penn Ave. I think if I were ever to write a book on bike commuting, I'd call it either The Sorting Out or Sense and Sensibility and Bike Commuting. But I like The Sorting Out because that's pretty much what happens whenever there are lines of bike commuters working their way through the bike lanes. Sometimes it goes smoothly and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it doesn't because I decide that I'm not going to get shoaled and I do things like pull to the far sides of crosswalks or jaywheel or ride to the far left of the bike lane because that's just the kind of mood I'm in, like I was this morning. I'm fine with people passing me, it's just that sometimes I want to make them earn it. Because, like I said, sometimes I'm a jerk and (this admission might seriously be damaging my candidacy for that vacant seat on that volunteer advisory board). Anyway, sometimes I just don't like it when other cyclists expect to get away with stuff (like passing too closely within a bike lane or shoaling or thinking that if they wheelsuck long enough, I'll move over) and I'm fairly confident that if I don't want it to happen, I'm not going to let it happen. But most days though, I'm all like whatevs.

I took the new normal route, meaning Penn to 11th to R to Mass to work. I like 11th, but I miss riding the last few blocks on Penn before 15th and I sort of miss riding near the White House, but I don't miss the cycle track. Maybe absence will make the heart grow fonder. But I doubt absence will make the pavement grow smoother or the lane grow wider. Only magic beans will do that. Or DDOT.

Why do you think I took this picture? Anybody have any ideas? I've got nothing.

Some advice about riding on the sidewalk: try not to ride between a pair of pedestrians who are walking together. It's really awkward and the next thing they're going to do is look at each other and maybe make a snide remark about how impolite that was. I've watched this happen. Normally, if you ding, one will just move over a little. Or, you could just wait. Or not be on the sidewalk in the first place. There are lots of solutions that don't involve riding between two people.

3 comments:

Maybe the picture is because you thought "hey, this would be a perfect spot for a bike up cafe/pub where Lauren could stop for a pint on her way home" because that's what I've thought now and again as I watched this go from sketchy Western Union/bodega/abandoned building to respectable-looking potential bike-up-pint location.